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Manzanar is located right next to the 395 (west side), about 10
miles north of Lone Pine. Manzanar was the first of ten remote
camps that held almost 120,000 Americans of Japanese
ancestry during World War II. During its peak period over 10,000
people lived there. Over 600 barracks were built. There were
recreation halls, a judo hall, several schools, a hospital, an
orphanage, 3 schools, and a music hall. Now you can drive down
Interstate 395 and never even notice this location.
The reason for this is 99 percent of the
buildings are gone and except for one building and a few stone
memorials, you would not know that Manzanar once |
existed. There are 2 stone/wood original security buildings
right next to the road at the entrance road. The entire facility during
its operation was enclosed by barb wire. These are good places to take
photographs. If you look closely you can see the engravings of
signatures left by Japanese Americans, some are old, some are newer.
Within
the past few years a nice visitor and info center opened. Its
located in the only large building standing just off the 395
freeway which is the restored Auditorium/Gym - this building was
originally built in 1944. If you arrive after this visitor
center closes, you can do a driving tour - pick up a brochure at
the main entrance. There are now numbered signs in the ground
where there used to be buildings and the numbers correspond to
info contained in the brochure.
The visitors center is open and admission is FREE. A 22-minute video is shown during the
visitors open hours which are 9am to 5:30pm every day, but closed on
December 25. There are exhibits in this building featuring historic
photos, a complete list of Manzanar inhabitants and other historical
information. A bookstore is also in this building - which you
will walk through when you first enter the building. Rangers are
on hand behind the |
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counter to assist you and answer any
questions you may have. Visiting this center is well worth your time - there are color home
videos from the 1940's taken of the Manzanar complex - its very
interesting to see these and see how lush and green everything looked at
the time. Then walk out behind the visitor center and you will see a
stark contrast in vegetation.
A moving display of all of the names of the internees is listed on
hanging white cloth. Exhibits show how individual families lived -
souvenir name tags are available. There is not a day that goes by when
either former internees of this camp or their relatives visit the site.
A "comments" book is available in part of the gallery - its quite
interesting to read some of the comments that people have written.
Tourists from all over the world visit this Exhibit.
There are many dirt roads leading west from US 395. They are almost all
that remain from this large town. Check out the map on the first
memorial. It shows you the old city blocks, and recreation areas.
Be sure to visit the white stone memorial with the Japanese characters
engraved into it - this is located in the back of Manzanar - off of the
furthest roads away from the main 395 freeway. Here there are several
small memorials and flowers strung along the picket fence. There are
several graves located here as well as circular monuments erected with
stones. Coins and other valuables are placed here in memoriam.
Note that Block Number 14 is slowly being restored. There is now a WWII
era Mess Hall that has been completely restored and additional buildings
are slowly being reintroduced to this specific Block. It is quite
strange to see new buildings popping up after so many years after the
War where this land was completely vacant. In our lifetime, we have
driven by numerous times and all we have seen was the empty desert. It
is neat to watch the slow restoration take place. In addition gardens
and other parts of the camp are planned to also be restored. You can
help support this cause by donating to the
Friends of Manzanar.
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In Los Angeles? Consider visiting the Japanese American National Museum
- see: www.janm.org or
read our review
HERE
A
haunting true story about one girl's attempt to survive the
forced detention is the book called Farewell to Manzanar by
Jeanne Wakatsuke Houston & James D. Houston.
For more information about visiting Manzanar please call
760-878-2194 x 10 or visit this website:
www.nps.gov/manz The Eastern California Museum is located in
the town of Independence - they have an extensive collection of
Manzanar artifacts.
More info? Email
ecmuseum@usamedia.tv
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